Vacation Rentals

When you travel with the family or a bunch of friends, a very good way to save money is to rent a vacation house together. If you prefer to have a lot of freedom but don’t exactly like tents and the hostels aren’t your favorite accommodation either, then renting a place to stay during a vacation in the Caribbean is the best choice.

When to rent?

The Caribbean area gets very crowded during the high season, which spans from mid-December until late April. Some of the islands are located outside the hurricane belt, which means you can plan to visit them year round. Plus, it’s cheaper to rent during the low season.

What to rent?

This can be quite a hard question to answer, especially when we talk about such a diverse area as the Caribbean. You can find apartments, villas and cottages to rent. But if you don’t know which to choose, answer the following questions:

• How many persons will be living together?
• Is anyone willing to cook?
• What are our vacation plans?
• Do we have to look for a luxury place or something decent is good enough?

If you want to cook then look for a place with a normal size kitchen (some apartments come with just a microwave and coffee maker, for example).

Houses/apartments located on the beach are more expensive than those located further from the beaches. You can find deals on the large sites, so you shouldn’t be surprised to be able to book a 2 bedroom (sleeps 8) deluxe villa in Puerto Rico for $900 a week. Generally speaking, expect to rack up from $120 per night for a 2 bedroom apartment on or near the beach.

Renting Tips

You can rent directly on the websites or from the owners. Large sites, such as HomeAway , often have good deals available and you can search within a large data base of places to rent. If you book directly via a large site and not from an owner, you’ll avoid paying the huge international bank transfer commissions.